The movie on the left is the official, pre-produced Artisan video, released by Blizzard in August 2010. On the right is the same movie, with live narration by Jay Wilson from the Gamescom expo, where it debuted. The visuals are the same on both, but Jay's explanation of things differs slightly, and runs longer when performed live.

Official Artisan Video

This is the offical version, pre-recorded and released with the Artisan reveal.

"Hi this is Jay Wilson, game director on Diablo 3. Today I'm going to tell you about a new feature we added called artisans.

Artisans are special NPCs who help the player in his fight against Diablo by lending their skills as craftsmen.

Artisan Quests
This is a Concept of the blacksmith, the first artisan you'll encounter in Diablo 3. You don't start the game with access to artisans, you discover them on your journey through sanctuary.

The loyalty of these craftsmen is not given freely, it has to be earned. When you encounter them in the game you'll have to gain their trust & loyalty by being the hero we all know you are.

Once you earn their trust, they will follow you throughout your adventure's aiding you any way that they can.

Crafting
We knew we wanted to add a crafting system to Diablo 3. But we felt that the idea that the player would have a side job on top of the immediate pressure of saving the world didn't really fit the tone of a Diablo game.

We also didn't want the player to spend a tonne of time banging on an anvil when they should be out killing things. So instead artisans will do the crafting for you.

As you can see the blacksmith has set up shop in New Tristram and is ready to help out. Artisans can act as a normal vendor selling a variety of useful items & purchasing anything you don't want to keep in your bag.

All artisans can also craft certain items. Depending on the type of artisans. The blacksmith mostly focuses on weapons & some types of armor.

On top of that all artisans have special abilities unique to them. The blacksmith can repair items but most importantly he can add gem sockets to some item types that do not already have sockets regardless of the quality of the item.

In addition all artisans have training options so you can upgrade them and talk options for that all important gossip about what's happening in the world of Sanctuary.

Let's talk about crafting first. Crafted items are meant to be an alternate way for the player to acquire items. Artisans learn recipes for items as they level up, but some of the best recipes are found in the game world as drops of monsters.

Once an artisan has learned a recipe he can craft it as long as you provide the materials & gold to cover his expenses.

In keeping with Diablo tradition we didn't want a crafting system that produced completely predictable items. So most items your artisan creates are a series of set & random properties.

Here we see a few items that have some set but mostly random properties. These could be good for a new class depending on what properties they produce.

Socketing
The main special skill of the blacksmith is his ability to add gem sockets to specific item types.

This is regardless of quality of the item. So a rare or legendary weapon could have sockets added to it.

This allows gems to be used to a much greater degree in Diablo 3 than in previous games.

Salvaging
To craft items you need materials, materials are acquired primarily by salvaging. You can use a special artifact you require that allows you to break items down into materials that can be reused in the crafting process.

This has a couple of advantages. Less trips to the vendor to sell items because you can easily break them down while you're adventuring and any items you don't need you can recycle in the hopes that they can be turned into something better.

Upgrading
Artisans can be improved over time. The artisan does this by using crafting materials you provide him to train & practice. As you can see once you have acquired the right materials the upgrade process is quick.

The goal here is to put the time investment into acquiring the materials you need through fighting monsters. Not have you spending tons of time in town with your vendor.

One of the great things about artisans is that they are visualised in the world. As you can see now that blacksmith has leveled up the look of the shop has improved.

Here's an example of how much a single artisans can improve throughout the game with this fully upgraded blacksmith.